You've gotta hand it to Jeffrey Toobin. The CNN legal analyst was promptly fired by the New Yorker after masturbating on a Zoom call in October 2020 and traumatizing his colleagues for the rest of their lives. Toobin, however, managed to persuade CNN not to fire him over his public display of self-affection. The left-wing news network merely granted his request for "some time off while he deals with a personal issue."
That was more than six months ago, which is a long time to be dealing with a personal issue, even one you've simply made up after getting caught masturbating on a Zoom call, or "tweaking the lede," as they say in the news business. Reports suggest Toobin will "probably" return to CNN at some point, but the network's top legal analyst was conspicuously absent during the coverage of Derek Chauvin's murder trial.
CNN did not respond to a request for comment about Toobin's situation. It remains unclear why the news network did not handle the situation the same way as the New Yorker, which launched an investigation and took appropriate action in an effort to foster "an environment where everyone feels respected and upholds our standards of conduct."
A New York Times profile published in January confirmed that Toobin was still employed as CNN's chief legal analyst and hinted at a possible return. CNN president Jeff Zucker is reportedly a big fan of Toobin but is leaving the network at the end of the year.
In the meantime, Toobin continues to lurk on Twitter, posting occasionally to mourn the death of someone he knew. Several weeks after the masturbation scandal, he claimed that his account had been "hacked," which is what the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) claimed after accidentally tweeting a photo of his crotch. Thankfully, no such photos of Toobin have surfaced.
Toobin popped out again in January and perhaps inadvertently telegraphed his impending return to the airwaves. "Many thanks. I'll be back," he wrote in a tweet that was promptly deleted.